There is growing demand for Internet based services such as voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) telephone calls and Internet based teleconferencing. Internet services such as these require large amounts of available bandwidth for transferring information between locations. As the amount of data transferred increases, the amount of available bandwidth must also be increased.
Internet based services that require data to be transferred in a timely fashion and in a specific sequence are particularly vulnerable to decreased amounts of bandwidth. For example, when downloading a file to be opened by a word processor, the receiving computer will collect all the data packets that comprise the file and reassemble them. The order in which these data packets arrive is of no consequence because the receiving computer will reassemble them before the user opens the file. However, when using Internet services such as VoIP, packets should be delivered in a timely fashion and in sequence so that a telephone conversation is possible. If data packets for a VoIP telephone call are not delivered in timely fashion and in sequence, the telephone call may experience deficiencies such as echoing, latency and jitter.
Therefore, there is a need for a system that will provide for increased availability of data packets for a VoIP telephone call or other high bandwidth Internet services.